Scores on Doors

About Scores on Doors

Council's Environmental Health Officers already regularly inspect our City's 840+ restaurants, bistros, hotels, cafés, bakeries, clubs and takeaway outlets to ensure appropriate health, hygiene and food safety practices are being followed. Joining "Scores on Doors" means we will continue to assess food businesses against a standardised food safety checklist, but we will also assign a star rating (5 star Excellent, 4 star Very Good or 3 star Good) reflecting their performance.   

Council will provide each food business with a certificate showing the star rating achieved during the inspection. Certificates should be displayed in a prominent position, usually on the front window or door or inside the business. Council may also publish the ratings for food businesses on our website.  

For more information read our Scores on Doors Frequently Asked Questions or visit the NSW Food Authority’s website.

Find local business ratings

Request a Rating Review

A food business may seek review of its star rating within 7 days of the inspection by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Council will give notice of the outcome of its review and determination within 10 working days.

Grounds for appeal are limited to the following areas:

• Interpretation of the Food Standards Code or Food Act requirements
• Review of the score assigned to a particular breach or breaches
• Review of the total score assigned and associated rating, eg error made in the calculated total, or
• Review of the category to which a breach or breaches have been assigned.  

The review will generally take the form of a desktop review and by the Health Team Leader, or in the case of their inspection, the Environmental Health Coordinator or Manager. A further inspection of the food premises is not necessarily required.   

A review may result in one of the following outcomes:

• No change to the score awarded 
• Increase in the score awarded and amendment of the star rating as appropriate, or
• Decrease in the score awarded and amendment of the star rating as appropriate.    

Council will not accept a third party right of appeal in relation to a star rating, including request from customers, members of the public or other businesses.

Request an Additional Rating Review Inspection

A food business may request an additional rating review inspection by filling in the Submit a Request online form below. You can only apply for this once any outstanding significant compliance issues have been addressed, that is after any issues on the Food Premises Assessment Report from the annual routine inspection have been addressed.

Please note there is no guarantee that the rating will improve or change, but it may go down if compliance issues are found at the review inspection.

An additional rating review inspection will incur a fee (in accordance with Council’s Fees and Charges) which must be paid before the inspection. Only one additional rating review inspection will be granted per financial year. Once a completed request form is received you will be advised in writing if Council is prepared to undertake an additional rating review inspection. The rating review inspection will be unannounced and will occur within three months of Councils written approval to re-inspection.

Submit a Request

What the star ratings mean